Flooding devastated swathes of Indiana but response is hampered by politics

Record inundations wrecked homes and took seven lives but Trump has not approved emergency aid and state has cut funds for environmental agencies It’s been 10 days since the floodwater receded from Cambridge City’s main street and yet signs of disaster are all around. Abandoned cars, toilets and bathtubs are strewn across parks and side streets on a recent visit to the city. Garages have been lifted from their foundations and moved by the rushing water. Dumpsters up and down the street are overflowing with people’s belongings, with red paint sprayed on homes indicating which houses have been cleared by water rescue teams. Flooding from the Crietz Creek, a tributary of the Whitewater River, has damaged one-third, or about 250, of all houses in this quiet town of 1,700 people in south-east Indiana. About 175 of those homes have experienced significant damage. “At first, earlier in the morning the water was coming into the basement from the west, and we were fighting it with a pump. We were good. But then, as the river swelled, it started to come back up the opposite direction,” recalls Rick Keasling of what happened on the morning of 12 August. By the time about 10in of rain had fall